Sports/TV: Let’s talk about brain injury danger and football

“Iron” Mike Webster of the Pittsburgh Steelers filed the first disability claim with the NFL citing the sport as the cause of his permanent brain injury in 1997. (PBS)

PBS and “Frontline” probably owe a debt of gratitude to ESPN for one of the dumbest PR moves in recent memory. If ESPN hadn’t abruptly withdrawn its official involvement with “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis,” the “Frontline” documentary might have just come and gone.

But since ESPN has a lucrative financial relationship with the National Football League, the network’s action was interpreted to mean ESPN was being pressured by the league.

Anyway, “League of Denial,” based on the book by former SF Chronicle reporter Mark Fainaru-Wada and his brother, Steve Fainaru, was a very good first step in making people aware of brain-injury danger — not just for pro football players, but for high school and college players as well. More study is needed, but so is action, and neither can come soon enough.

If you saw the first broadcast Tuesday night, or even if you didn’t, my colleague Ann Killion and I want to hear what you think about the brain injury issue as it relates to professional sports as well as youth sports.

By the way, if you’re from the Bay Area, KQED will re-air the documentary at various times through Oct. 19. Go to the station’s website here to find additional broadcast times.

Please join us here at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Pacific Time, for a real-time chat. We really want to get your take on this issue.